Yesterday, Itagaki vs. Tecmo commenced with Itagaki's lawyer submitting into evidence the contract he had supporting his completion bonus for Xbox 360 title Dead or ALive 4. Tecmo's lawyers submitted a somewhat identical-looking contract, differing in that it did not support Itagaki's claims that he was entitled to a completion bonus. Hrm. Someone it seems is lying, and other evidence seems to indicate that Tecmo isn't exactly being truthful about overtime — which is a totally separate case altogether.

Things are going from bad to worse for Tecmo. First Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki…
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Something else to keep in mind: Earlier we reported that Tecmo slapped Itagaki with a gag-order, meaning that one had been filed — as of course there are no Japanese laws to prevent Tecmo from filing for that! However, a judge has yet to sign off on this gag-order for it to actually be in effect. Since this hasn't yet happened, the gag-order is, well, not in effect. What's more, that gag-order motion may very well be tossed out of court.